Soul of Searing Steel Chapter 28: The Secret Letter

[To the New Master of the Radcliffe house - Joshua van Radcliffe]

[From, your servant Fang]

[By the time you read this, you should have gotten rid of the bugs that were infesting the mansion and the city. Artanis is my trusted friend. A man that is very religious. Hence, I entrusted this letter to him with utmost confidence. However, to prevent any breach of privacy, you would have to prove your identity.]

"Such confidence. Was he really that confident that I could eliminate the trash? Even though I did manage to take out the trash… Still, if there's something important to say to me, why did he not talk to me instead?"

Joshua sighed longingly as he held the letter in a small room, located in the far west of the city. He had found a nice place to hide. It was small rest house that belonged to the Radcliffe house which was located in the west, next to the graveyard. Since the main mansion was reduced to rubble, he had no choice but to relocate to the small house. It was all thanks to 'Joshua's' memory that he was able to find the place. The house was bigger than those of the other common folk. Even though it was old and not as fancy as the mansion, it was tidy. There was no wild grass or traces of dirt. The décor and the cleanliness were top notch. It could be because a certain someone frequently visited the place to clean it.

Joshua allowed Ying to wander about while he found a small room to rest and read the letter that was entrusted to Artanis from Fang. He tore the envelope and unfolded the letter. When he had expected a long, well-written text after unfolding it, all he saw was a blank sheet of paper with a small magic circle stamped in the center. The paper itself looked ordinary. Hence, if someone else were to try and remove the seal, the entire letter and its contents would be destroyed. To unseal the letter to reveal the message, he had to do something to trigger the seal.

"Hmm… Could it be?"

After a quick glance, Joshua lifted his index finger and focused his Combat Aura to flow to the top of his finger. The crimson red light flashed around his hand and the light was concentrated at his fingertip.

Hooong….

The vibration of the Combat Aura started to shake the paper as he slowly touched the center of the seal.

Fwoosh….

The magic circle absorbed the light and started to glow. The light circulated around the seal and slowly broke away after some time. The patterns slowly disintegrated into nothingness as the real contents of the letter slowly surfaced out of the blank paper.

It was wise to use Combat Aura to verify one's identity since every person's Combat Aura differed from each other. Like fingerprint recognition tech in the real world, Combat Aura shared the same uniqueness as no two people could share the same aura. It would change according to the breathing technique and body physique.

The text came to light and Joshua lowered his head to read each word.

[Young master. No… To the new head of the Radcliffe house, when you are reading this paper, I have most certainly left this world.]

[Please do not mourn my insignificant death. As my master, the contractor has left the world, so shall I. The reason that I am still able to live and breathe was because the previous head of the house released the restraints of my energy core… Right now, with every breath left inside me, I am to fulfill the last mission that was entrusted to me. I must bury his remains, along with mine, into the tomb of the Radcliffe family. This is the responsibility of a Divine Armament, as well as the job of a butler.]

[Between the two Divine Armaments that I prepared for you, which did you pick? Either way, since you have known about the existence of the Divine Armaments, please allow this lowly butler to explain the origins of us, the Divine Armaments, and how the Radcliffe family was able to make contracts with us.]

Joshua could not believe what he was reading. It had surpassed anything that Joshua had expected.

The truth about the old butler's ten days remaining lifespan and the means of how he was able to stay young was revealed in the letter. Everything else was also true since everything had matched what the system had shown.

Fang's death, was an inevitable act of nature. It was… frustrating to see him leave.

Joshua clenched his fist with utmost annoyance.

The tomb… could it be the one at the Fort Dark Forest?

The Radcliffe's mansion was built on the foundations of battle and war. How could a family of such origin forget such glorious history? Their life for blood, their strength for war, their purpose, to kill. As such, even in death, they would be buried with their weapon. Even in death, they would rest in peace in the small family tomb located in the corner of Fort Dark Forest, beside a chapel that was in charge of the burial ceremonies.

Joshua shook his head hard. It was not the time to recall the memories of the past. He took a deep breath and braced himself to read rest of the letter. He was sure to be reading more information about his otherworldly realm.

[The Divine Armament, are not a product of this world. To be precise, I and all of the Divine Armament were created with resources from another world. A world that had been obliterated by evil monsters.

The origin of this could be traced back to 347 years ago.

347 years ago, in Starfall Year 494, due to the resurrection of the 'Elder Dragon - Blazing Black Dragon Alatreon, the Great Ajax volcano erupted, puffing great smoke enough to blanket the icy North entirely. With the great magic power surge spreading through the airspace, the magic teleportation circle that was meant to sent troops from the Empire of the south to the land in the north was ineffective, causing the early sages to fall in the ancient Starfall Ocean. With their demise, the fortress that had stood the test of time—Fort Dark Forest—had lost their only hope for reinforcements.

Desperate times called for desperate measures; hence, the Empire had gathered an army that could be said to be the greatest gathering of the strongest soldiers in the history of mankind. The army comprised of elites. The army was only a small company of 200 men. However, each man was so strong that they could take on a thousand soldiers alone. Hence, with such gathering of powerful men, they were sent to subdue the elder dragon, pacify the Great Ajax volcano, and to fix the teleportation circle to restore the pathway from the Empire to the Northern land.

The subjugation of the elder dragon was completely flawlessly and Alatreon was nowhere to be seen. It was unknown to where it had disappeared to start its long hibernation. The Great Ajax volcano was also pacified easily. There were nine magicians that had reached the pinnacle of sorcery worked together to create a powerful magic circle to cease the molten lava activity deep within the volcano. As such, the Great Ajax volcano would never erupt again for thousands of years to come. The teleportation network was restored and the fortress had restored their means of reinforcement. The great army rested in the north before the return to their place of origin.

Everything was according to plan, until one fateful night. The next day, in the forest located somewhere at the foot of the volcano, was a light. In the center of the desolate forest, there was a glow. A small glow that radiated with strong abyssal darkness. It was alien to all, the dark and corrupting light was spewing out smoke. Not long after, the smoke formed a strange line formation. A powerful burst of magic erupted from the source of the light and the land pulsated, like a beating heart, until the earth itself cracked and split apart around the lines that were created by the smoke. Within the gigantic crack, out came monsters that had never been seen. They came in all shape and sizes. Some looked like plants, yet some looked like machines. The monsters that came out were not vulnerable to magic or Combat Aura. Strangely enough, they were weak against physical attacks.

However, even though the means to destroy the alien invaders were simple, the powerful army created by the Empire to subdue the elder dragon was unable to stop the monsters. Amongst the dwarves that were within the army, there was a powerful dwarf named Ironborn Moira. With his keen eyes and sharp observation, he had noted that the monsters' own claws and fangs were capable of inflicting powerful damage onto themselves. That was not all. He had even managed to observe the death of these monsters which resulted in the conversion of their dead corpses into thick black ash. Furthermore, the death of the monster would result in drops; materials that were very strong and capable of absorbing powerful supernatural forces. Hence, it was discovered why the monsters were not vulnerable to magic or Combat Aura attacks.

Moira proceeded to craft weapons for the army, using the materials gathered after the initial killing of the first wave of monsters. As such, with the provided new weaponry, the army of soldiers was able to slice through the monsters' thick carapace like a hot knife through butter. As such, even if the monsters' spawned unlimitedly, the soldiers would not face any trouble to destroy each and every one that spawned.

The battle lasted for only a day and a night, resulting in the black ash soaring into the high skies, contaminating the clouds and shaded the sun. However, along with the disruption of the burst of magic power from the point of origin, the monsters had stopped spawning and the source had seemed to have closed. The army exterminated every single monster that was still roaming in the forest and went back to report to the Empire.

Concerned over such a mysterious event, the Empire had ordered the army to roam freely in the north to stand guard and to provide instant reinforcements to those who needed them. This allowed the Empire to gather its mightiest warriors.

Chapter end